Negimaki — a service overview

Negimaki began hosting WordPress 1.2.x & Gallery 1.4.x sites on March 2004 for close relatives & friends. But maintaining hundreds of standalone WordPress installations was no easy task, not to mention having to deal with rampant trackback & comment spam. We decided to switch gears on February 2007 to focus more on photo sharing — built around Gallery 2.x multisites.

Negimaki can help you get started with Gallery, the open source web based photo album organizer. Listed below are links to sites we host for a small but growing community of amateur & professional photographers.

Standard features include:

your own Gallery 2.x multisite (version 2.2.4 codebase) and a subdomain namespace holder (eg. subdomain.photopians.org, subdomain.myg2.org or subdomain.photosleeve.org)

— no local setup & installation required. To get started, all you need is a modern web browser like Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer or Opera

— no advertising which means a clean, clutter-free presentation of your photo collection.

— full control of built-in features — like creating users & groups, enforcing viewing restrictions (eg. public, hidden or password-protected), custom watermarks, and much more!

— generous 10GB of storage space & 10GB of bandwidth allowance (monthly)
— batch uploading of pictures, video clips & other filetypes (up to 200MB each)
— personalized technical support via email, IRC (internet relay chat) or Meebo (instant messaging)
— ability to hotlink images from forums, message boards, ebay auctions, etc...
— import pictures from Picasa
— daily updated traffic statistics (Webalizer & mod_cband)

Explore the possibilities of Gallery as a tool to promote your photography works, or share your memorable moments of life with family & friends. Sign-up for an account today!

Doesn't web hosting cost money? Why offer it for free?

It all started as a personal project to store pictures of family gatherings and host web journals, all in one central location. Still, there was a huge amount of unused resources that could be put to good use. Offering it out in the open without restrictions was not an option, so we dabbled with "selective generosity" — catering only to certain individuals who understands our imposed restrictions & limitations.

Negimaki is a labor of love, always will be. And we'll keep it running for as long as our pockets allow. If the service can no longer be maintained due to prolonged lack of funds, an advance notice will be posted, at least 3-6 months ahead of the scheduled full closedown. No, there will be no paid service upgrades, but we will ensure that data backups and migration assistance will be provided.

It is never in our goal to close down the service and leave users wandering around, clueless. The greatest pride we can derive is the opportunity to promote the use of Gallery and our dedication to our users — nothing more.

Why did you choose the Gallery platform?

It is simply, the best. Nothing comes close. But most importantly, it is actively being developed which means bugs & security-related issues are dealt with in a timely manner. The Gallery project also maintains a forum, a wiki (documentation), and two support channels on IRC (internet relay chat) and overall, has a growing & devoted following.

Is technical support provided?

Yes,— by email, IRC (internet relay chat) and IM (instant messaging). As a service provider, we have to ensure that we know how to address issues and where to look for documentation references.

Where is the server located?

At the AboveNet datacenter in New York City, USA — it's a fully managed lomag.net dedicated server with remote backups (rsync) every 6 hours to multiple locations including bqinternet.com

The current specs are as follows:

— Intel Pentium D 935 3.2 GHz CPU (4 MB Cache), 2GB RAM, Western Digital SATA harddrives
— FreeBSD 6.2 Operating System
— Apache 2.2.x, PHP 5.2.x, mySQL 5.0.x, mod_security


To celebrate our 4th year, we'll be upgrading to a brand new spankin' colocated server in late-November 2008. The specs will be as follows:

— Dell PowerEdge 2950 rack server
— with two Quad-Core Intel Xeon CPU
— 4GB RAM
— additional 750GB Western Digital SATA harddrives
— FreeBSD 6.3 or 7.0 Operating System
— increased storage space & bandwidth usage to 18GB (per user)

Is an FTP service available?

No, we no longer offer this feature to new users.

Do you monitor activity?

Vigorously, using automated tools and a group of dedicated nocturnal cyborgs. You can call it "stalking" or whatever you want to label it as, but you know... someone's gotta do it! :)

Is for-profit advertising allowed?

No, we do not allow for-profit advertising in any shape, size or form (inline, popups & frames, etc...) on any sites we host.

"negimaki", what exactly is it?

In Japanese, negimaki or negima — are broiled strips of beef smothered with teriyaki sauce and rolled with scallions. If you're craving for authentic Japanese cuisine, or just happened to land on this web site while searching for a recipe — try Google instead.